


Wind

by ericaismeg



Series: 30 Days of Writing [28]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 30 Days of Sterek, 30 Days of Writing, Danger, Declarations Of Love, Derek Helps Stiles, Fluff, I don't know what to tag this as, M/M, Natural Disasters, Stiles Helps Derek, Tornado, Wind - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-27 01:59:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1710842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericaismeg/pseuds/ericaismeg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a tornado warning, and everyone's told to go into their basements. Guess who ignores that to make sure the other is okay? Yeah, you got it. Stiles and Derek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wind

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm about to finish this [writing challenge](http://foxerica.tumblr.com/post/84097258077/felicitygs-spontaneousfangasm).
> 
> Day Twenty Eight.  
> HOLY SHIT ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT. 
> 
> Word of the day: wind.
> 
> \--  
> This was a hard word...so...uh. Forgive me in advance?

“ _There is a tornado warning in effect for Beacon Hills_. _We believe small tornadoes will start appearing throughout the area._ ”

            Stiles puts his book down on the coffee table in front of him and looks at the television. The news anchor looks calm, but he almost catches the nervousness in her voice. Stiles pushes off the couch and goes to look out the window.

            The sky is a dark greenish colour, and Stiles' stomach does a little flip. He turns back to focus on the television.

            “We _are advising people to stay inside, and take shelter in their basements. Remember to avoid windows at all costs, because an exploding window can injure or kill._ ”

            Stiles jumps away from the window. He wonders if Scott's aware that there's a tornado effect in warning. Then Stiles remembers Melissa might be at the hospital—which can't be safe.

            He scrambles to find his cell phone. When he does, he types while the news anchor continues to say, “ _If you do not have a basement, please take cover in a room on the lowest floor without any windows. We suggest getting under something sturdy, covering your body with blanket—a sleeping bag or a mattress—protect your hands. Avoid taking cover in any rooms where large objects are placed above._ ”

 

 **STILES:** _scott, tornado warning in effect, is your mom working today?_

 **SCOTT:** _no she's not, we're in the basement already with kira, allison, and isaac_

**STILES:** _okay, good_

 **SCOTT:** _have you heard from anyone else...are you in your basement?_

 **STILES:** _not yet, going there_

 

His phone rings just after he sends the message. “Hello?”

            “ _Son_ ,” his father's voice comes. “ _Get into the basement right now. There's a tornado warning._ ”

            “I saw, I'm going! Are you okay?” Stiles asks.

            “ _I'm alright, we're all downstairs too._ ” Stiles hears his father's voice catch a little. “ _Don't do anything stupid, Stiles. Grab some food and water and get downstairs._ ”

            “Will do!” Stiles tells his dad. “Call me when it's over?”

            “Send me a text if it gets too close,” the Sheriff tells him. “I want to be home with you but—”

            Stiles remembers. His dad is working on a particular case. He had a nine-year-old girl named Maila at the station. She'd been lost for almost three weeks, and Stiles' had seen his dad's grave expression as he left for work. The Sheriff can't risk coming home for many reasons, but the most important is the fact that the Sheriff would never put a nine-year-old's life in danger. He's responsible for her well-being.

            “I know, Dad. I love you,” Stiles says.

            “I love you too, son. Be safe.”

            “Promise,” Stiles answers.

            He grabs the throw blanket over the back of the couch and glances at the television. The news anchor says, “ _For our radio listeners out there, if you're driving right now—please do not try to outrun the tornado. Stop your vehicle, do not get under it. Try to find somewhere safe to hide—avoid anywhere with lots of trees. Protect your head with an object or your arms._ ”

            Stiles heads down into the basement.

**STILES:** _lyd, you okay?_

 **LYDIA:** _yeah, jackson and I heard the report, we're with his parents_

He nods, and then opens a new conversation.

**STILES:** _you and boyd?_

 **ERICA:** _a-okay, bunny.  
_ **ERICA:** _thanks for checking, and yourself?_

 **STILES:** _in my basement._

He pulls the blanket over his shoulders and texts the person that he's most concerned about. Stiles just doesn't want to admit it right now.

**STILES:** _you okay?_

            When five minutes pass by without a response, Stiles starts to rub his hands together. He debates on whether or not it's clingy to call him or not.

            Six minutes.

            He's calling. He doesn't care. Stiles needs to know that he's okay, needs to know that he heard the radio. He hits his back against a bookshelf. He's confused for a second, but then he hears the words.

            “ _You've reached Derek Hale. Leave a message._ ”

            He frowns. That's not good. Derek's always at his phone. Considering their lives, it's a little awful if their phones are right there beside them. Besides, Derek has _werewolf hearing_. He would be able to hear it from a mile away (exaggeration, Stiles thinks, but close enough to the truth).

            Stiles tries one more time.

            “ _You've reached Derek Hale. Leave a message_.”

            That's it.

            He knows it's stupid. He's also fully aware that he promised his dad he wouldn't do anything stupid. But it's _Derek_. Everyone knows how he feels about Derek. And really, what's a little tornado in comparison to everything else they've been through together?

            Stiles grabs his Jeep keys, and keeps his head down as he steps outside. It's definitely windy out today.

            He makes it about half-way there with very little difficulties, just the wind pushing against his Jeep a little more than usual, before he sees the tornado in his rear view mirror. _Shit, shit, shit_. He knows he shouldn't keep driving. He does it anyway, and hits speed dial on his phone.

            “ _You've reached Derek Hale. Leave a message_.”

            Fuck. Stiles should park and hide in the ditch. He knows he should.

            This really wasn't his best idea.

Stiles frowns. Nothing happens to his phone. He glances in his rear view mirror. It doesn't look that large (thank gosh), and it also doesn't seem to be heading towards him since it looks smaller than it had a few minutes ago.

            When he realizes this, he hits the gas. He'd just keep an eye on it. It's far enough away that he thinks he could at least make it to Derek's driveway. He's almost there.

            He's relieved to see that the tornado is out of sight. Stiles parks his Jeep at the end of the driveway to the old Hale house, before he starts running.

            Stiles bangs on the front door, and waits. He tries the doorknob. “Goddammit, this is the one time you lock your fucking door.”

            There's suddenly a loud noise, and Stiles turns around. _Oh_. He can feel the wind picking up and bangs louder on the door. “ _Goddammit, Derek!_ Answer your fucking door right now!”

            It happens in an instant. Stiles knows how much he cares about Derek, he's known it for a while now. Erica had tried convincing him to tell Derek. So had Lydia. Allison. Kira. Scott. Hell, even _Isaac_ had commented on it.

            Stiles hadn't wanted to tell Derek. Telling Derek, confessing that he thinks about him _all_ the time (even when he doesn't want to), admitting to the fact that Stiles' feelings run deeper than 'pack'...it's scary. What if Derek tells him to fuck off? Worse, what if Derek _laughs_? Derek would probably let him down gently. Stiles doesn't want pity from Derek.

            Oh no, Stiles wants so much more than that.

            They'd grown comfortable with each other. Sometimes Derek would even put his arm around Stiles' shoulders. He'd laugh loudly at Stiles' lame jokes, and he has a habit of studying him with his intense Derek-look. After the Nogitsune, Stiles found comfort with Derek.

            The pack had spent the entire summer dealing with the stress they'd had and they'd rebuilt Derek's house again. Derek had looked damn _fine_ in his construction clothing. They pack would be done for the day, but Stiles would hang back. He and Derek would just talk.

            God, Stiles loves talking to Derek. He needs to hear his voice again.

            He pulls his phone out again, enraged.

            “ _You've reached Derek Hale. Leave a message._ ”

            “Fuck you, Derek! I'm outside your house right now. Where are you? I think the tornado's—”

            The door swings open. Derek's face is fully-alert. He grabs Stiles by the collar of his shirt and pulls him into the house. He slams the door shut and then drags Stiles down into the basement. There are about seven candles lighting up the room.

            “What the fuck are you doing here?” Derek growls.

            “You didn't answer your phone,” Stiles says, stumbling backwards when Derek lets go of him suddenly. “I was worried.”

            “So you _left your house to risk your life to come out here?_ ” Derek demands.

            “Yes. Did you really expect me to do anything else?” Stiles asks, but his voice is a whisper in the noise that surrounds them. The wind picks up, rushing through the floor above them.

            Derek shakes his head, looking at Stiles in frustration. “How many times have I told you? Stop risking your life for mine.”

            “Why?” Stiles asks. He steps forward. They could die today for all Stiles' knows right now. He reaches out to put his hand on Derek's upper arm awkwardly. “Why should I stop risking my life to save yours?”

            “You're only human,” Derek murmurs. “You don't have healing powers. Stiles, I can't...we can't...Stiles.”

            “What?” Stiles asks. He steps up a little closer to Derek. “You always tell me that. You always inform me that I'm only a human. Do you think I'm weak?”

            “I think you're fragile,” Derek tells him. He steps away from Stiles to pace. “I think that you seem so strong, so brave, but you're fragile, and losing you would drive me to insanity. Is everyone else okay?”

            “Everyone else is okay,” Stiles tells him with a nod. “I checked on them first.”

            “Good,” Derek says. “Good, that's...good. You're a good person, Stiles.”

            A window shatters on the floor above them. A second later, Derek has his arms wrapped around Stiles, his hands covering Stiles' head. He gently pulls them down to the ground. “Derek, I'm okay. We're going to be okay.”

            “And if we're not?” Derek asks him.

            “We're not going to be taken out by _wind_. I refuse,” Stiles tries to joke. He can sense the tension in Derek though, and knows that joking won't soothe his fears. “Stop it.”

            “Stop what? Worrying about you, Stiles? You have got to stop putting yourself in danger for me,” Derek tells him. He brushes something off Stiles' cheek. “I will never be happy again knowing that you were hurt trying to protect me.”

            Stiles lifts his head, pulling away from Derek, so he can meet his eyes. “Derek, I would rather die than let anything happen to you. I would rather die that let you get hurt. I would rather—”

            “No,” Derek says, sharply. “No more talk about dying.”

            “Fine. But I wouldn't be upset and I would never regret it. If it saved you.” Stiles snuggles in closer to Derek. “I hate tornadoes.”

            Derek nods. “I know you do. Don't think about it.”

            Another window explodes. Derek pulls Stiles in closer.

            “Tell me a story, Stiles.”

            Stiles knows why Derek tells him this. It's a distraction, an easy distraction that _works_. Stiles starts rambling about his fear of thunderstorms when he was younger. He tells Derek how his mother used to come into his bedroom and tell him that there were some upset people in the clouds.

            “ _'You know when you're upset and you kick over your blocks_?' she'd ask me,” Stiles tells him. He doesn't realize that Derek is absentmindedly playing with the collar of his shirt. They just stay tangled up in each other sitting on the floor. “I'd nod, and she'd tell me, _'Well the thunder and the lightening are the Cloud Peoples' way of getting out their frustration too._ '”

            “Did it help?” Derek asks.

            “Yeah,” Stiles says, smiling. “Whenever we had a thunderstorm after that, I'd tell her that there were sad people again. She promised me there'd always be a rainbow though.”

            Derek brushes Stiles' hair with his fingertips. “Never stop believing in that rainbow.”

            Stiles snorts, but he leans his face in towards Derek. He nods. “Never, ever, you big idiot.”

            “Whatever,” Derek murmurs.

            “Derek?” Stiles asks, wincing when they hear a door upstairs banging around. “There's something I should tell you.”

            “Me first,” Derek interrupts.

            “No, I really—”

            “You're not just pack to me, Stiles.”

            “What?”

            “You're not just pack to me,” Derek repeats. He takes a deep breath. “You're more than that. You're beyond family, beyond my best friend, and you scare me shitless whenever you do something insane and _stupid_ as coming out here today was. I can't imagine losing you, not now, not ever. I don't want to live in a world without you, because...Stiles, I'm in love with you.”

            Stiles blinks. He can't see the details of Derek's expression in the candlelight, but he can see enough of his face to realize that he's worried. Stiles leans in and presses his lips against Derek's cheek.

            Then he draws his lips down to meet Derek's. It's a slow kiss, but the best kiss Stiles' has ever experienced. When he pulls away, with his hand playing with the back of Derek's hair, he says, “Derek, I will always choose you. I will choose you over me _every time_ because I'm in love with you too.”

            Derek lets out a small noise of disbelief, but his disbelief doesn't last long. They're kissing again, and Stiles finds himself being gently pushed backwards onto the floor. He doesn't mind being tangled up with Derek, he doesn't mind at all.

            “I love you, I love you, I love you,” Derek whispers against his lips. “ _Come back to me, Stiles. Be okay, be okay._ ”

            Huh?

            And then Stiles wakes up.

♚♞♚♞♚♞

            “What the hell is going on?” Stiles groans, rolling over. His head is _killing_ him. Why is his head killing him? And where's Derek? He opens his eyes and finds the answer to the latter question glaring at him.

            “You idiot!” Derek shouts, and Stiles can feel him patting his face. Stiles blinks a couple of times, and then he rubs the back of his head. “You scared the shit out of me.”

            “What happened?” Stiles asks, glancing around.

            They are not in the Hale house basement. No, they're most definitely in the Stilinski basement. But...but Stiles _left_. He went to Derek. Derek confessed—oh. Derek hadn't confessed anything to Stiles. He rubs the bridge of his nose. There had been no kissing, no touching, no declarations of love. Stiles cringes and looks at his best friend, who looks as though he's seen a ghost.

            “An encyclopedia fell off the bookshelf. It knocked you out. Don't move too much, you might have a concussion.”

            Stiles doesn't care, he still sits up. He glances around. _There had been no confession._ It hits him like a ton of bricks. Maybe even two tons. “Derek, isn't there a tornado warning?”

            “Yes. And?” Derek asks, his eyes searching Stiles' face. The concern that Stiles sees makes him happy until Stiles remembers that Derek isn't in love with him. He's not, right?

            A thought occurs to him.

            “Were you home?” Stiles asks, glancing around the room. He listens and can hear the whistling of the wind but it doesn't seem as though there's a tornado that close by.

            “No, I was on my way to make sure you were okay. Are you okay? You shouldn't move too much. I can go get you some ice or—”

            “No, I'm okay. Did you risk your life to come make sure I was okay?” Stiles asks. He watches Derek's face very carefully.

            “Of course,” Derek tells hi. He shrugs. “It's not a big deal.”

            Stiles' eyebrows shoot up. He had sworn he'd been kissing Derek a few minutes ago. Stiles knows that there's no turning back now, because his imagination had felt so damn real. He has to try. If there's the smallest possibility that Derek might actually be in love with him too, Stiles needs to try. He thinks back to the advice Erica had given him repeatedly. _Be honest._ “Not a big deal? Not a big deal? You could've been sucked up into a tornado and then—”

            “I wasn't,” Derek points out.

            “—where would I be without you?” Stiles' voice drops. “Derek, I can't pretend I don't care about you anymore.”

            “You do care about me?” Derek asks, frowning. He doesn't understand. “We're pack, we care about each other?”

            “No, I mean, I can't pretend that I'm not _madly, wildly_ in love with you, you doofus.” Stiles leans forward, hoping he doesn't make Derek uncomfortable. “I just...you just...I need you. I need you and I love you and I don't want there to be any stupid excuses left to prevent me from telling you. You're more than pack to me—you're my best friend, my family.”

            “Pack is family,” Derek mumbles, but then he tilts his head and studies Stiles. “How hard did you hit your head?”

            Stiles lets out a strangled laugh. “Not hard enough for my sanity if you're going to let me down gently.”

            “Stiles, I—”

            “I would _die_ for you, because I love you, and you're it for me. You're the one I turn to on a bad day, and the one who I want to take mini-golfing. You're the one that I lean on, and the one that I hope you trust without hesitation. I've known this for a while, but...but I never knew what to say, how to word it.”

            Derek leans forward, and carefully places his lips to Stiles'. It's a quiet moment, a tender moment, and then Derek's devouring Stiles _nothing_ like he'd imagined, he'd dreamed. He pulls away and says, “You mean this, right?”

            “Yes. You went out in a fucking tornado warning to make sure I was okay. I would've done the same for you,” Stiles whispers. _I did. I really thought I did._

            “I wasn't going to let some stupid _wind_ be the thing that took you out. I didn't realize I should be concerned about an encyclopedia.”

            Stiles laughs and pushes Derek's shoulder. He follows him down onto the floor, and grins. “You're an idiot and I love you.”

            Derek grins. “I think I love you too.”

            “I know,” Stiles says. He'd known it the second he'd realized that Derek had risked his life (yet again) to make sure Stiles is okay. He reaches out and grabs Derek's hand. He's not going to let go anytime soon. Derek smiles at him, almost as though he'd heard Stiles' thoughts.

♚♞♚♞♚♞

            While they wait to see the green light that the tornado warning is over on their phones, Stiles leans into Derek, who holds him tightly. “ _And she used to tell me that there were people in the clouds..._ ”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> THIS WAS SUCH A DIFFICULT WORD. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. Also, I figured I haven't done the cliched _it was a dream_ trope, so...here it is. Because why not? Also, oh man, I am so sorry that I totally overused the italics button. 
> 
> · If you're following the series, please drop by [here](http://www.foxerica.tumblr.com/talktome) and let me know if you haven't already! **I want to make sure I can thank as many people as possible for your support and wonderfulness for following this series.** (Especially guests without ao3 accounts - give me a real/fake name and let me add you to my list please!) If you have sent me a message, it has most likely been answered. If you were anonymous, go [here](http://www.foxerica.tumblr.com/tagged/anonymous) and you should be able to find my answer (trust me, I'm replying to them all - if it's not there yet, it will be - there's been a lot of messages!).  
>  · I posted a SECOND sneak peek of my fic, Just the Same, that will be posted every Monday and Thursday starting June 2nd, 2014. (There are seven parts in total). Go [here](http://foxerica.tumblr.com/post/86068765337/below-the-read-more-you-will-find-a-sneak-peek) to see the first sneak peek and [here](http://foxerica.tumblr.com/post/86638185582/30-days-of-writing-skipping-todays-fic) for the second. (Also I will so not be offended if you choose not to follow that story. I'm grateful to everyone who's been following this one though!)  
> · [tumblr](http://www.foxerica.tumblr.com)  
> · YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN WONDERFUL, AMAZING, ADORABLE, AND FANTASTIC and I love you all.


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